Originally published at https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/06/08/njpw-returns-next-week-32-man-new-japan-cup-announced/
New Japan Pro Wrestling will end their hiatus with the announcement they will resume live events beginning next Monday.
Chairman Naoki Sugabayashi held a press conference announcing the promotion will return next Monday for their first show since February 26th. Their decision to suspend operations led to 53 events being canceled.
They announced a series of shows for June and early July that will be taking place without fans before running July 11th and July 12th at Osaka-jo Hall, which will be operating at 1/3 the capacity for fans.
The June 15th card is being promoted as the ‘Together Project Special’ and will be presented like New Year Dash where the card is announced at the start of the show.
The New Japan Cup will begin on June 16th featuring heavyweights and junior heavyweights with the opening round taking place over four events with the following matches:
June 16th:
*Togi Makabe vs. Yota Tsuji
*Tomohiro Ishii vs. El Desperado
*Toru Yano vs. Jado
*Tomoaki Honma vs. Hiromu Takahashi
June 17th:
*Kazuchika Okada vs. Gedo
*Yuji Nagata vs. Minoru Suzuki
*Yuya Uemura vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru
*Taiji Ishimori vs. Gabriel Kidd
June 22nd:
*Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Taichi
*Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Kota Ibushi
*Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Sanada
*SHO vs. Shingo Takagi
June 23rd:
*Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Yoshi-Hashi
*YOH vs. Bushi
*Satoshi Kojima vs. EVIL
*Hirooki Goto vs. Yujiro
The second round of the tournament will take place on June 24th and July 1st.
The quarter-finals are set for July 2nd, the semi-finals on July 3rd, and the finals on July 11th will take place at Osaka-jo Hall.
On July 12th, Tetsuya Naito will defend both the IWGP heavyweight and Intercontinental titles against the winner of the New Japan Cup at Osaka-jo Hall.
The company has also canceled its July tour of Hokkaido and the news shows will replace Dominion, which was set for June 14th.